You don’t necessarily need to go to Ireland’s capital to access opportunities with cutting-edge technology firms.
If you’re hoping to break into the Irish tech space, you may be under the impression that you’ll have to move to Dublin if you aren’t already there. Given that it is Ireland’s capital, it makes sense that Dublin can often attract the glut of foreign direct investment and is, therefore, the most likely place that a tech multinational will set up.
Yet rising rents in the capital have made it harder and harder for talent to arrive at the city, and has begged the question of whether it’s possible to have both a good quality of life and access to some of the world’s top tech opportunities.
But have you considered Donegal, also known as the location of the Irish base of technology firm Pramerica?
Pramerica, which has made its home on this island in Letterkenny, was established in 2000 as a shared services centre for its US parent company Prudential Financial. It provides a broad range of technology services including IT software, quality assurance, automated testing and software development. On the business end, it also provides actuarial, legal and financial services.
“So there’s a huge range of job opportunities and careers here,” explained Andrea McBride, VP of systems at Pramerica.
“One thing that really struck me when I started working here was that no matter who you are or what level you’re at, everybody says hello,” added Orla McGinley, HR business partner at the firm.
“I think most organisations will say it’s people that make the culture. I think what makes Pramerica different is the support that we give our people.
“We love people who bring diversity of thought to Pramerica. We’re really passionate about engaging with our people and helping them grow and develop.”
McGinley added that Pramerica has always placed huge emphasis on learning and development for its staff, and estimates that last year alone more than half of its employees have taken part in some form of formal training, either to upskill or develop a new skill.
Growing talent
For Matthew Bergin, a DevOps engineer at Pramerica, one of the most surprising elements of his role is the level of responsibility he was granted from an early stage.
Bergin started with Pramerica in 2018 as a DevOps intern and got to spend time with each role within DevOps. In March 2019, he got a permanent position within Pramerica working on Amazon Web Services (AWS) pipelines.
“I’ve been here for four months now and I’ve already been given a lot of responsibilities and opportunities to grow my career,” he said. “I’ve also been recommended to take part in HR training called ‘hiring for success’ so I can take part in interviews and hire new candidates for the team.”
To hear more about working life in Pramerica, check out the video interviews above.
